Beyond the Blockade

This dissertation explores musical exchanges between Cuba and the United States during a four-year period from 2009 to 2013. The work focuses specifically on international music festivals in Cuba and on international tours involving performances in the U.S. by Cuban musical artists and bands. Examination of these musical exchanges provides a lens through which to view not only U.S.-Cuban musical relations in particular, but the larger political, economic, social and cultural implications and effects of musical interactions between the two nations as well. Policy shifts in the wake of Raúl Castro assuming the Cuban presidency and the election of U.S. President Barack Obama are allowing musicians to more easily traverse the Florida Straits than in the recent past. These musicians aspire to renew the once thriving musical relationship between Cuba and the United States, and the international travels taken for this purpose take on the qualities of a musical pilgrimage. The analysis of international musical exchanges at this crucial time in U.S.-Cuban relations illustrates how festival and tour participants conduct international relations at the level of musical interaction, a cultural domain which functions as a testing ground for political change. Performances themselves reflect the promise and tensions of U.S.-Cuban relations by featuring music that represents a more harmonious international relationship or subverts listeners' musical expectations. As a result, musicians can often achieve a level of political expression and debate that diplomats may fail to cultivate because the latter are more constrained by the limits of verbal expression, and musicians often have more freedom in reaching new audiences and individuals by avoiding simple political classifications. While these performers distance themselves from any overtly political stance, the organizational challenges, venues, participants, musical selections, and reactions to these exchanges reveal further political realities about the U.S.-Cuban relationship and its future. As more musicians travel between Cuba and the United States, they cultivate transnational networks that encourage further musical interaction, which in turn fosters socio-political change. Musicians may, as a result, shape and determine the dynamics of U.S.-Cuban interactions as much as they reflect them.